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This year's Amsterdam Antiquarian Book, Map & Print Fair will be held on Friday, October 29 and Saturday, October 30 at the Passenger Terminal Amsterdam. For the first time both Dutch antiquarian associations, the NVvA (Nederlandsche Vereniging van Antiquaaren) and the BOB (Bond van Handelaren in Oude Boeken), have agreed to cooperate, resulting in up to 65 Dutch and foreign exhibitors. Publishers and bibliophile societies will also present themselves during the book fair.

Darwin, the UVA and Redmond O'Hanlon

This year’s Amsterdam Antiquarian Book, Map & Print Fair will be held on Friday, October 29 and Saturday, October 30 at the Passenger Terminal Amsterdam. For the first time both Dutch antiquarian associations, the NVvA (Nederlandsche Vereniging van Antiquaaren) and the BOB (Bond van Handelaren in Oude Boeken), have agreed to cooperate, resulting in up to 65 Dutch and foreign exhibitors. Publishers and bibliophile societies will also present themselves during the book fair.

Since the Dutch antiquarian booksellers’ association NVvA celebrates its 75th anniversary in 2010 the organization has set up numerous festivities, expecting to bring this year’s fair to the attention of a large audience.

Redmond O’Hanlon will open the 31st Amsterdam Antiquarian Book, Map & Print Fair on Friday, October 29 at 2 pm. O’Hanlon has written several bestsellers and accounts of long journeys, but is also well-known for his prominent and amusing presence in the Dutch television series “The Beagle: in the wake of Darwin”. In the opening speech Redmond O’Hanlon will talk about his love for rare books, especially those related to Charles Darwin, and about his voyage on The Beagle. The University of Amsterdam (UVA) will exhibit a very fine collection of Darwiniana at the Amsterdam Fair: photographs, manuscripts, the very first edition of “On the Origin of Species” (1859) and the rare, first Dutch translation (1860) of this important book. The books that inspired Darwin on The Beagle will also be exhibited. This part of Darwin’s reconstructed library is called “The Sources of Darwin”. O’Hanlon’s own copies of first editions by Charles Darwin, intensively used in the television series, will also be shown, as “The Redmond Copies”. These books have not all quite survived the long journey at sea…

To conclude this year’s fair Redmond O’Hanlon will hold a lecture in the impressive 19th century Amsterdam Artis Library on Saturday evening.

Both Dutch antiquarian booksellers’ associations will publish a joint full-colour catalogue, with the rarest and finest books of the fair’s participants. Parts of the catalogue offer, also concerning Charles Darwin, will be shown on both websites: www.bobboeken.nl and www.amsterdambookfair.com .